Time to Heal
by her ocean eyes
Summary: Journey to Neverland. Emma Swan has never believed in soul mates. Killian Jones has never thought his broken heart could get cured. But maybe it is time for him to heal after all. One-shot. Captain Swan


_Disclaimer: None of this is mine, not the characters, not the storyline. When it would be Meghan would be on-screen like forever and Emma and Killian would already be canon._

**Time to Heal**

Emma Swan has never believed in soul mates - or in true love for that matter. Since she found out her parents are fairytale characters - Snow White and Prince freaking Charming - some of her views have changed. Once she thought fairytales were some sweet stories invented for children to make them believe that good always wins. But she knows now that there is more than black and white, good and evil. There are those guys who are stuck in some kind of twilight zone. Much like _him_.

_He_ makes her re-think so many things. She always has been good in figuring out if someone was lying or not - it is kinda her dower. But she has never looked into someone's eyes before and looked straight into their soul. With him it is different. Back in the Enchanted Forest when they first met she just knew he was no innocent blacksmith because of her gift but on top of that beanstalk... On their way up he was the one who read her, who had told her she was an orphan and has been alone for her entire life. But at the giant's castle she has been the one to read him. And it wasn't just because she was perceptive.

They understand each other. They are both broken and scarred. Both of them got their loved ones ripped away from them - in his case by a ripped out heart. She lost Neal twice. Once because he wanted to leave her, a thing she could never forget or forgive. Of course she loves him, she has never let herself love anyone else, she has kept her heart behind a wall that was as high as a mountain and as thick as a wall of stone. She has kept Neal in her heart but she couldn't _love_ him anymore in the way she loved him before he let her take the fall of a crime he had committed. She still has feelings for him. Most of them were connected with betrayal and hurt but then there were the remains of love and hope. Hope of a good life, a life where everything is perfect. But this life doesn't exist anymore. Neal is gone just as Henry is. Henry. Her lovely Henry. Her son. Gone. Because Neal didn't believe her when she told him about Tamara in the first place. He first had to get mortally wounded to believe in her and her abilities. All the time since she has met Neal back in Manhattan he has proved her again and again that she didn't mean anything to him anymore. Or at least not more than a "good friend" to him she apparently still was the seventeen year old girl with the flower tattoo. She is a grown-up woman. She isn't an orphan anymore. She is the savior, a mother, a fighter. But no one seems to see that. No one but _him_. And it scares the crap out of her.

While Emma's heart is surrounded by a wall he hides behind a mask of innuendoes and flirty behavior. They both don't want to get broken again, hurt again. They both are guarded.

But as she looks over at the man standing at the helm, steering the _Jolly Roger_, she wonders how long she can keep her walls up. But she is sure it won't be for long if he keeps looking at her like that, like he looks into her soul. But as their eyes lock he immediately looks away and Emma suppresses the smile that tugs on her lips. _Does he really think she doesn't notice all those stares?_

Killian Jones is fascinated by her. For about three hundred years, since his beautiful Milah died this horrible death, women had been nothing more than a "thing" to distract him from the pain he felt inside. They were nothing more than a sex object to him.

When he first looked at Emma he just saw a pretty face and a body he wanted to see writhe underneath him. But as soon as he looked into her eyes he saw the broken girl she truly was and he couldn't see her as a sex object anymore. He started to _feel_ again. The last time he felt something for someone was with Milah and he can't help but compare Emma to his lost love. Milah has been gentle and kind and adventure-loving and beautiful and he has loved her so much. She has meant the world to him and when she died everything went black. There was nothing more than revenge and then _she_ showed up in his life.

Emma Swan is the most stubborn, guarded and bloody distrustful woman he ever met in his whole life, so distrustful it almost hurt. But all of those characteristics attract him even more. He still wants to bed her but he knows that this won't be a one-time-thing anymore. It would be more. He would loose his heart. And since they are on his ship, which has only _limited_ space, meaning no one could avoid the other forever, it would be hard not to talk to her sometime - alone. As long as everyone was around he risks nothing at all because around the others he could still hide his true self behind the mask of Captain Hook but when the two of them would be alone there is no chance for hiding anymore, there would be just Killian Jones and no one else next to her. She would look behind his cocky attitude and then- He doesn't know what will happen then. But he knows it scares him.

And when their gazes fly across the deck towards each other and finally - inevitably - meet he knows he is not the only one who is scared. He looks away immediately but he knows she noticed it anyway. Lately he is staring at her far too often.

"You know if you touch her I will kill you," a voice says from behind him and Killian almost lets go off the helm with fright.

"Excuse me?" he says with a look over his shoulder.

"If you touch Emma I will kill you," the prince replies and Killian turns his head again, looking towards the horizon again.

"Why would you think I want to touch her?" Killian replies.

"I think you would bed every woman on this ship." Killian raises both of his eyebrows. _Actually no_. "But since Regina is Regina and Snow is my _wife_ the only option left is Emma. And I've seen the way you look at her." Funny. He thought he had been quite subtle about his stares. But even though the prince might has a point he wouldn't sleep with every woman on the ship. He only wants Emma, even if he flirts with Regina he never intents to really bed the Queen.

"I couldn't "get" Emma even if I wanted to," the pirate says and looks over his shoulder again to see David shift his weight and crossing his arms in front of his chest. But then the pirate smirks smugly. "Except you think that your daughter has this kind of interest in me," he says mockingly and he can ear Charming's knuckles creak.

"You _want_ me to punch you, don't you?" Killian smiles challenging.

"I might." Killian swears the prince grinds his teeth.

"Don't press your luck, mate."

"I wouldn't dream of it, _mate_," Killian replies and then he hears the slowly fading footsteps of the prince. He shifts his gaze from the horizon to the blond on board again. This time she is the one who quickly looks away. He starts to smile slowly. "At least if she doesn't want me to," he adds quietly smiling. He has been broken for so long and she makes it hurt less just by looking at him. Maybe it is time to heal after all. And she will be his cure, just as he will be hers.

**the end**

_**A/N: This baby turned out to be **__different__** to what I originally wanted to write, because it started out as some kind of a character study.**_

_**Then I wanted to write about the way Hook always looks at Emma but then BAM David shows up and this baby is born.**_

_**But I'm still kinda happy with the outcome, what do you think?**_


End file.
